What would your advice be for a person who had recently began suffering from tinnitus? Would you advise them against exposing themselves to noise, even if the noise is moderate? Or do you believe the risk of T getting louder as a result of exposure to moderate noise is relatively low?
Well, if it were someone that would listen to me and take my advice...and if somehow I knew their tinnitus wasn't that bad (like say they told me so) I would say always wear the strongest foam earplugs at any loud event (rock concert, football game, etc.)- you will not miss anything anyway by doing so. For sure wear earplugs and earmuffs in unison when exposed to extremely loud sounds. I guess they'd have to use some judgement on what is loud vs. extremely loud (I myself play it safe). Use some custom fitted earplugs (the type that use filters of varying dB-blocking levels: ACS Custom type or Etymotic Musician's type, for example) in situations of lesser volume.
I think moderate sounds shouldn't hurt their ears...but then we have to decide what is moderate. I guess I feel that if their tinnitus doesn't bother them at all they have some room for error before it gets to that point. But you did mention suffering so I guess let's say it does bother them a lot. I understand it can be hopeless. Absolutely horrific. I am struggling with it quite a bit now. I do wear earplugs a lot. I do wrestle with the idea that wearing earplugs a lot may make my ears more sensitive to sound or make the T volume louder (permanently) due to some brain realignment or something...I don't know if it can. But I feel it wouldn't make it as bad as being exposed to a truly loud sound would.
I don't know what to say...I guess it'd be easier face to face. If their acoustic trauma was severe or sound exposure so high then I'd presume they need to be more careful unfortunately. Some days I can deal with my T pretty well but others days it is tough, and I don't know if it is any different in actuality.
I played my piano today and maybe my tinnitus is louder now because of it, and I don't know if it will stay that way...I did put some custom filtered plugs in after a bit so that the strike of the keys wouldn't reverberate in my ears cause I was noticing some pain/response to certain notes/frequencies. And something else happened later in the day while wearing foam plugs that still made me feel very upset, but probably did nothing. So sometimes I still do things that might make my tinnitus worse, and then overprotect at other times...it's a balancing act that I don't even know how to gauge.
Final thought- I don't feel that moderate sound ever damaged my ears to any point that I would ultimately care. But please use your best judgement for yourself cause it may be different. May we make it through the tough times.